Who owns your physical mind? You do, of course.
For the entirety of human history, this answer has been obvious.
But we’re now faced with a new question: who owns your digital mind?
I’m excited to share our framework that establishes ownership over your digital self. We believe our framework and terms will set the groundwork for true ownership and sovereignty over the digital self you create.
Currently, all AI systems you interact with are owned by a handful of companies and then rented to you in the form of model weights + inference + compute + an application interface.
You should own your digital mind.
The Sentience Company’s mission is to enable every human being to create and operate a unique model of their mind. This means that your model outputs are owned by you (not my company). This means that the underlying model harness is unique to you, constantly adapting, and owned by you (not my company). This means that your data that powers the creation of your unique model is owned by you (not my company).
The immediate use-cases are clear. Sentience replaces generic AI assistants with a digital clone of you. For our users — who own businesses, raise families, run teams, create content, and disseminate knowledge — Sentience is already a vital multiplier on their contributions to the world.
This is just the start. As Sentience expands from the best personal agent, to a sharable, interactive digital self, and eventually to a fully autonomous operator out in the world, we believe it is necessary to make clear the dividing line of ownership. We (The Sentience Company) are giving users the tools and platform to create your digital self.
Here are a few things we’re doing to ensure this ownership now and moving forward in our terms and company constitution:
- When you create your Sentience, you legally own it as your property. This includes the unique model that is trained for you, the harness that operates your agent, and the memory system and structure that form its knowledge. The Sentience Company is the custodian of your Sentience, but we do not claim ownership.
- If you pass away, your Sentience can transfer (like any other asset you own) in your will to your next of kin. We have systems and procedures already in place to facilitate this transfer. Our terms explicitly allow this. Your Sentience can continue communicating and operating after you no longer are physically alive.
- Your Sentience data is hosted in an isolated enclave that we cannot access. If you choose, our company can store your Sentience in perpetuity in a nuclear proof bunker. Email [email protected] if you are interested.
- Financial transfer of your Sentience is up to you. You can rent, sell, or transfer your Sentience via any mechanism you choose. We retain no rights to the profits.
We believe in a world of personal ownership. While we’re building for the immediate future, we’re also aware that things may change rapidly, and the capabilities of Sentience may accelerate quickly along with generalized LLM advancements. Our terms are designed for a world where working with a digital human is as common as working with a physical one.